“They’re not going to make the kind of money they wanted,” said William Hambrecht, chairman of San Francisco- based WR Hambrecht & Co., who designed the Dutch auction of Google Inc.’s 2004 initial public offering. “I’m not sure people really have come to terms with the fact that what we had was a financial bubble.”

New rules from the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision will more than double capital requirements for banks. Fixed- income revenue could fall 25 percent under a draft of the Volcker rule, which may outlaw so-called flow trading, according to an Oct. 10 note from Brad Hintz, a Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. analyst. Leverage has been cut by more than half at banks including Goldman Sachs and UBS AG, and an Oliver Wyman and Morgan Stanley (MS) report estimates that regulation may reduce returns on equity by 4 to 6 percentage points.

The new rules are the result of “societal objectives of a populist administration in Washington,” private-equity investor Wilbur Ross said in an e-mail. John Phelan, co-founder of MSD Capital LP, a New York-based fund that manages assets for billionaire Michael Dell, said “the whole capitalist system is being called into question.”

***

Uncertainty didn’t stop some on Wall Street from profiting during the U.S. housing collapse, when Deutsche Bank AG trader Greg Lippmann helped create and profited from a multibillion- dollar market in subprime-based derivatives. He said Wall Street will have fewer exotic products to sell and trade, drawing an analogy to the popular no-reservations restaurant Torrisi Italian Specialties.

“No choosing, great food, low price, no pizzazz,” said Lippmann, co-founder of New York hedge fund LibreMax Capital LLC. “A couple of years ago, the hottest place to go would be someplace that they just spent $5 million decorating and they’ve got three or four models answering the phones. People want stripped-down now.”

***

Options Group’s Karp said he met last month over tea at the Gramercy Park Hotel in New York with a trader who made $500,000 last year at one of the six largest U.S. banks.

The trader, a 27-year-old Ivy League graduate, complained that he has worked harder this year and will be paid less. The headhunter told him to stay put and collect his bonus.

“This is very demoralizing to people,” Karp said. “Especially young guys who have gone to college and wanted to come onto the Street, having dreams of becoming millionaires.”

I’ve always wondered where the assholes on HGTV shopping for their first home at the age of 25, and bitching about the appliances not being stainless steel or that the bathroom only has one sink came from. Now I know.

https://www.balloon-juice.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/balloon_juice_header_logo_grey.jpg00John Colehttps://www.balloon-juice.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/balloon_juice_header_logo_grey.jpgJohn Cole2011-10-12 16:40:052011-10-12 16:40:05A Challenge For You All

Actually, the overall feeling I get from the article is fairly upbeat. The whole excerpt indicates that things are changing in ways they need to change, and that real consequences are being felt by the people who need to feel them. The bit about the kids coming out of college and having their thoroughly unrealistic dreams dashed is simply humorous. Welcome to reality, bitches.

“This is very demoralizing to people,” Karp said. “Especially young guys who have gone to college and wanted to come onto the Street, having dreams of becoming millionaires.”

Yeah, about that. Take a look outside, dillweed. Young guys and girls who have gone to college and didn’t want to come onto the Street — and now they’re occupying it. Take your millionaire dream and jam it up your ass so far it comes back out your eye socket.

“But I’m working HARD playing games with other people’s money! When will MY ship come in? I mean, OK, no, there’s a ship, I can’t lie, but what about the NEXT ship, the really GOOD ship? It’s just not fair to be 27 and only a semi-millionaire.”

‘ The new rules are the result of “societal objectives of a populist administration in Washington,” private-equity investor Wilbur Ross said in an e-mail. John Phelan, co-founder of MSD Capital LP, a New York-based fund that manages assets for billionaire Michael Dell, said “the whole capitalist system is being called into question.” ‘

Well, that guy’s statement is true if the desire to have a financial and economic system that is stable, and does not boom and crash can be considered ‘populist’.

Just because these dudes are as rich as God, and learned some simplified theoretical stochastic process stuff for their complex derivatives, does not mean they know what they are talking about.

There are several models of how an economy works when it is hooked up to fancy financial markets. The first one, as far as I know was by Roy Radner. The latest one that I am aware of was done by Graciela Chichilnisky. They all have some things in common: no stability properties.

The conclusion of these models is that stability is impossible. So what can be done? Limit the damage of the inevitable booms and crashes that occur because of the instability. How? Well, gosh darn it, by reasonable capital requirements and controls on leverage. Who woulda thunk?

These people have confused ‘anything goes dog eat dog’ society, a kind of modern update of Hobbes’ state of nature, with a capitalist system that can do something useful for society at all. Unless you want to define whatever happens as the best for society (which is the approach that some macroeconomists seem to have chosen).

A few more epdisodes like this one, and our modern state of nature, with ‘lectric lights, and publicly financed law enforcement that keeps people from getting beaten up whenever someone stronger feels like it, or indoor toilies that poop into something besides a broken rotting sewer pipe, will devolve into the old fashioned version.

Heh. Reminds me of the dot-com bubble. Same problem. A few years worth of 18-22 year-olds that either got their degree or dropped out went from signing bonuses and 6-figure salaries to a few years later hoping to get web design jobs for blogs about guys that mop naked and their enormous cat.

Sometimes things that look too good to be true are true, but they don’t last long.

My kid can’t go to college or tech school. I just had to tell him over the weekend. Try doing that without bursting into tears or wanting to go do awful things to a rich prick like in this article. We could get loans,sure,but there’s no way for us to ever pay them back. All our money is gone. The 401K,gone,closed to pay medical bills and other debt that was killing us. The equity in our home? HAHAHAHAHAHA,oh I kid,I kid. Our only hope is a dept of labor program for people with learning disabilities. But since my son isn’t severely autistic,he won’t be at the top of the list. We make too much(!)to qualify for grants and scholarships aren’t happening. We’re maybe two or three paychecks or a serious problem away from losing everything.

So I have a little trouble mustering sympathy for spoiled brats.

The nicest thing I can wish for all the little Wall Street whiners is an inoperable case of hemmorhoids which burst into flames from time to time.

Heh. Reminds me of the dot-com bubble. Same problem. A few years worth of 18-22 year-olds that either got their degree or dropped out went from signing bonuses and 6-figure salaries to a few years later hoping to get web design jobs for blogs about guys that mop naked and their enormous cat.

There is that vibe to them. Though they egos seem to be even more inflated. I get the impression these guys think that getting the degree at the right school is what entitles them to the million a year salary and nothing to do with what job they end up with.

Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley may shed the “bank holding company” classification in order to skirt the Volcker rule banning propriety trading with the firm’s own capital, according to Susquehanna Financial Group analyst David Hilder. Goldman and Morgan Stanley both became bank-holding companies during the 2008 financial crisis in order to be eligible for emergency Fed lending. But the new rule, which would limit trading when the bank’s own money is a risk, would deal a major blow to one of Wall Street’s most profitable businesses.

@Enhanced Voting Techniques:
That’s pretty much it. Aristocratic titles no longer have much value but a degree from the right university pretty much confers the same status. And of course these people deserve all that because their mommy and daddy had enough money to send them to the right private schools that would get them into those universities.

How the hell do you allow an institution to spontaneously change its classification, specifically to get free money, then put no stipulations on that change?

Jeebus! They should have, at least, had to sign something that said they had to remain a bank holding company for 5 years before they could petition to change back. And there should have been no guarantee that the petition to change back would be approved.

Whatever the regulatory agency in charge of this is, should charge Goldman-Sachs with conspiracy to defraud the government. (that is a charge, isn’t it?)

@spudvol: Actally, that’s good. They aren’t retail banks. They should not have converted to recieve TARP funds. They should fail when their investments go sour. That’s what investment banks are supposed to do.

I am really looking forward to Thanksgiving Day dinner with my hedge fund manager brother and his trophy wife and designer children. I know I’ve posted this before – it’s just that as the day looms closer, the dread gets bigger – a bit like Frodo and Sam approaching Mount Doom – only with gravy rather than lava.

I’m encouraging the kiddo to think about what he wants to do and then we’ll go ask people who do that job what sort of things he could do to educate himself. Internships,apprenticing,distance learning,classes he could maybe audit,that kind of stuff.

I read that over 100 Wall St donors left Obama for Mittens b/c he promised to repeal Dodd Frank if he won. I’m not looking forward to all the ads the Rove/Koch/WallSt cabal will put on my TV against “the Populist”. They better hope the Eurozone crisis doesn’t affect their banks b/c I don’t see them getting bailouts.

I’ve always wondered where the assholes on HGTV shopping for their first home at the age of 25, and bitching about the appliances not being stainless steel or that the bathroom only has one sink came from. Now I know.

I LOVE HGTV! :D

That said, a couple of nights ago on “My First Place,” I believe, a young single woman in the “financial services industry” was shopping for a condo in Boston’s trendy South End on a budget of $700,000.00, poo, collagened lips, and all. When they just “couldn’t” find anything satisfactory at that price, Mommy casually offered to toss in $300,000.000 from her and “dad” so that princess could have a satisfactory castle as her first freaking home.

So this young, single woman’s first home is a million dollar condo which she is paying the mortgage on all by herself.

I wondered why during the show most of the ads featured designer gardening pitchforks and high end patio torches…

When the rich can borrow at 0% or less while the poor pay usury rates there is financial apartheid.

And no, these are not the people on HGTV. They are the people who are Ivy League Alumni brats. who get into college because of their family connections, would only buy a house from family connections, and stay in the elite bubble of family connections their whole damn life.

In fact, the only reason they get hired is because some family connection gives them a token ‘account’ that they can take to a brokerage. thats the truth.
I know these people well-they are the epitome of waste, fraud and abuse.

@A Mom Anon: The nicest thing I can wish for all the little Wall Street whiners is an inoperable case of hemmorhoids which burst into flames from time to time. See, you are a nice human being. The nicest thing I wish for them is that they be rounded up and dropped in Somalia with a hunting knife and fifty bucks.

Like I’ve told both my 17 and 21 year olds, we saved for years to send them to the schools of their choice. But if either of them ends up on Wall Street not only would we be disappointed in them, we’d want to be re-paid.

Honestly, short of them becoming outright criminals I can’t think of anything that would upset me more.

@A Mom Anon: Actually a number of properly accredited universities are now running distance learning. So are good colleges. Our local one, which used to be a community college but grew, has a very healthy list of online offerings.

Run the choices past your local librarian. There are ways of figuring it out. (edit) Of course that implies you still have a public library. Sigh.

The nicest thing I wish for them is that they be rounded up and dropped in Somalia with a hunting knife and fifty bucks.

That IS awfully nice of you. You’re proposing to give them what they want – a free trip to that latter-day Galtian paradise. No fuckin’ government to screw with their livelihood! Yippee! And since the IB-ers and other Masters of the Universe frequently talk about how they “kill what they eat” (or is it “eat what they kill”?), providing them with a free Boy Scout knife will, no doubt, allow them to grow even fatter than they already are.

You are FAR too nice. If it were up to me, I’d … well, best not go into it now – this IS a family TV show, after all.

For that matter, what a lot of people do is spend their first two years at a decent community college and then transfer to a local university. It’s a lot cheaper and you can do your general requirements in smaller classes. Most students work part time or full time (at least they did when jobs were around.) Check out some of the options. The for-profit online schools can turn out to be very expensive.

“This is very demoralizing to people,” Karp said. “Especially young guys who have gone to college and wanted to come onto the Street, having dreams of becoming millionaires.”

Those fuckers don’t know demoralized. How about we outsource their jobs to China (because it will make more profits for their bosses), cut off their health-care and unemployment, foreclose on their houses, and laugh at them when they complain that their food stamps don’t buy enough to last for a month? THEN they can talk about being demoralized.

There is that vibe to them. Though they egos seem to be even more inflated. I get the impression these guys think that getting the degree at the right school is what entitles them to the million a year salary and nothing to do with what job they end up with.

Agreed. At least the (stereo-typical) dot-com kids always seemed to give off the impression that they were surprised and befuddled that anyone would pay them big bucks in the first place.

@A Mom Anon: Seconding the thought of community colleges — not only are they cheaper, but as a bonus they often offer smaller classes, a plus for those core requirement classes.

Once you hit the four year programs, the two things you are looking for are:

1) Non-profit

2) Regional accreditation (Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools and so on….there’s six separate associations, so check the geographic area.) This ensures that if you want to transfer your credits, you can. (You may or may not be able to do this if the school is nationally, not regionally accredited.

Bonus things to look for:

3) Program accreditation

4) Campus attendance requirements (some programs require you to spend one week a year on campus, for instance; with other programs you never need to see the actual campus at all.)

Quite a few reputable colleges/universities are going the online route, so it might work out.

@Kola Noscopy: Real ‘murkins who are hurt badly might “whine”, though sometimes it’s less than manly. Pretentious elites, one step removed from English nobility, “whinge” when they feel slightly uncomfortable. Does that work for you?

maybe these world class assholes should start a ‘we are the 1%’ website. that would generate a lot of sympathy.

You may already have seen last week’s picture of the “We are the 1%” signs in the windows of one of the Wall Street firms. (Well, I assume it was a Wall Street building, since it was part of an OWS-related article/post, and I think also had the now-infamous picture of the champagne-sipping Little Lords and Ladies of the Financial World.)

There are good people- who celebrate life, liberty, and freedom- and there are bad people, who celebrate death, control, and taking property from others. It has to be increasingly clear that whatever the points these Wall Street Occupiers make, they are the kind of scum that have led to the worst problems in the world, the worst sort of tyrannies, and are the kind of worthless people who backed regimes ranging from Mao to Hitler.

You’re a bad person if you support this sort of scum and put up pictures on your website encouraging people to die. There is a place you’re going someday, that’s for sure.

@A Conservative Teacher: back to school you ass, Hitler was a fascist, not a communist and if you know your history, they (the communists) were some of the first folks rounded up by Herr Fuhrer, along with the Jews, the homosexuals and strangely enough, the intellectuals. If you want to argue about taking property from others, simply look at the foreclosure rates for the last three years in these here United States. Tell, me who’s confiscating property from whom? Not sure what you’re teaching, but its patently obvious that you slept thru civics from years 9 thru 12.

I believe that its your ilk who celebrate the death penalty, who resort to 2nd amendment remedies and who laud the cruelty of austerity while others suffer. I guess all those folks protesting in the streets with their lives wrecked should just keep looking for a job while others continue to ply their trade courtesy of our taxpayer bailouts and continuing to control the purse strings to their advantage. You’re gonna need to work a lot harder to hang here ACT, a good many of the folks here can and will eat you up and spit you out since you can’t even get your history right.

“We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by the Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these rights are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, and that secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just power from the consent of the governed.”

A natural right is a right given by the Creator, and not by a man or group of men. A natural right is unalienable not because it cannot be taken away, but because for a man or group of men to take it away from someone would be displeasing to the Creator, and thus wrong throughout the universe.

The Bill of Rights is an operable political expression of philosophical “natural rights”.